The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • NUPENG to protest unfair practices

    NUPENG to protest unfair practices

    THE Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has threatened to protest alleged unfair practices by employers in the oil and gas industry.

    Its President, Comrade Igwe Achese, spoke at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NUPENG, which held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

    He said: “The nation-wide rally is to protest, particularly, casualisation of workers and resistance to unionisation of the workforce by recalcitrant management who have continued to outsource virtually all cadres of job in the oil and gas industry.

    “We shall be demonstrating in all the state capitals to let Nigerians know the unbecoming attitude of some employers to job insecurity in the country.”

    Achese, who said Chevron and ExxonMobil, are the worst promoters of unfair labour practices in the industry, lamented that despite appeals the oil giant had continued to sack workers in its employment.

    He said the union had made entreaties to Chevron management and written protest letters to vital arms of the government to prevail on the company to stop its unfriendly labour practices, yet it did not listen.

    “For fear of the unknown, some workers are signing letters banning them from joining the unions, which violate their rights of association as enshrined in the country’s constitution. We have said there will industrial action against Chevron if the trend persists,” he said.

  • ‘How to reduce unemployment through NEPAD’

    ‘How to reduce unemployment through NEPAD’

    The Executive Director African Heritage Institution (AfriHeritage) has urged the Federal Government to take advantage of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s (NEPAD) agenda to boost employment in the country.

    Amobi, who spoke at a workshop of the agency in Abuja, which has as theme, ‘Strengthening the effectiveness of NEPAD in Nigeria: The way forward,’ said since the adoption of NEPAD by African countries, the country’s huge financial commitment has not been realsied.

    He urged the government to use the opportunity of the body’s agenda to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.

    Amobi said the workshop was organised in response to the yearnings of concerned individuals and bodies from various corners of the development space for an understanding of the achievements of NEPAD in Nigeria, since it was adopted over 12 years ago.

    He said the achievements would be to utilise the outcome to change the perception about NEPAD in Nigeria, adding that the belief in many quarters is that after 12 years, the impact of NEPAD was yet to be felt in Nigeria; considering the fact that Nigeria is one of the five founding member countries of NEPAD and its highest financial contributors.

    He said: “NEPAD activities in Nigeria are virtually unknown – this is not helped by an out-dated website and the fact that up till now, there is nobody at the helm of its affairs. This workshop is expected to throw up many questions that require critical thinking and solutions or resolutions on the way forward. This will enable us assess its successes, identify the challenges and obstacles it faces, its interface in other development areas such as poverty, employment generation, the MDGs, security, and recommend ways in which the effectiveness of NEPAD in Nigeria can be further strengthened to enable it fulfil its vision and achieve its objectives, particularly in the area of infrastructure development.”

    On the role of the legislature in the agenda, Amobi called on the National Assembly to see unemployment as a great challenge that calls for pragmatic actions. He, therefore, expressed the belief that the communiqué to be issued at the workshop would provide the lawmakers the impetus for accelerated legislature to drive for the enactment of the “Bill for an Act to Provide for the Establishment of the NEPAD Commission and Other Related Matters.”

    Participants called on the government to revive the secretariat of NEPAD and bring it out of the civil service commission so that the benefits of the country’s financial contribution can be realised.

    They urged the government to use multiple models to reduce youths’ unemployment.

    The event was attended by participants from Africa, Central Bank of Nigeria, Federal Ministries, NEPAD officers, civil society organisations, the academia and others.

  • Youth unemployment, a time bomb

    Studies have shown that about 80 per cent of the youth are unemployed. Worried about the dangers this development portends to the country, stakeholders said there is urgent need by both the public and private sectors of the economy to address the problem for sustainable development of the country, TOBA AGBOOLA writes.

     

    The increase in youthful population has been described by analysts as a time bomb waiting to be detonated. This is because the increase is not being matched with the provision of employment opportunities.

    Nigeria is said to have the largest number of unemployed youth in sub-Saharan Africa.

    They argue that the inherent strength of a youthful population, could be drawn upon by the government and the private sector for sustainable national development.

    Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria(CIPM), Mr. Sunday Adeyemi, said, youths are the major economic drivers in any society, adding  that the employed or empowered youth is capable of driving the country’s economy in the right direction.

    Adeyemi said considering that the greater proportion of vices that face the nation seem traceable to youth and their activities, it was only reasonable for engaging them in constructive initiatives in order to keep youth busy and productive at the same time.

    He lamented however that the atmosphere that will get the youth engaged for productive activities has not been created.

    According to him, there is a clear evidence that promoting entrepreneurship consciously among youth could be an effective way of tackling unemployment within this class.

    He said this conclusion is drawn from the analysis of the data collected from a stratified sample of loan beneficiaries of the small scale industries (SMEs) and graduate employment programme in the country, adding that apart from entrepreneurship, other initiatives like vocational training could come to the rescue.

    Insisting that youth unemployment has maligned families and debased educational system, a labour activist and President of Progressive Leadership Organisation International (PLOI), Mr. Emmanuel Ezueme, said many parents are frustrated and traumatised seeing their sons and daughters turn to crimes such as advanced fee fraud, prostitution and others because of they are not able to get a space to eke a living, even after graduating from the university.

    He said even children are now discouraged from being serious with their studies because the serious ones that left school have remained jobless, several years after leaving school. According to Ezueme, the country’s youthful population should be a formidable advantage to the economy if well harnessed.

    He said:“In addition to constituting a dynamic workforce to produce goods and services for the nation, they should also make-up the entrepreneurial class to drive the economy,” adding that the youth should be encouraged by creating the right environment to enable them turn their imagination into creation of new products and improvement of existing ones.

    A youth leader and former President of Children’s Parliament, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the Federal Government is not doing enough to address the problem of youth unemployment in the country, adding that the country’s youth needed to embark on a nation wide campaign to ensure that jobs are created.

    ”There is no system in Nigeria that empowers young people to be easily employed by companies or even to be self-employed. Though governments at all levels are trying to introduce vocational trainings, I think it has not been well-prioritised,” Abdullahi said.

    He said both the government and the private sector should make sure that tackling youth unemployment remains on top of their agenda, because the issue of unemployment is a serious one and many youths have lost their lives in trying to get work in other countries.

    He said youth unemployment is a major challenge to the peace and security of the nation, adding that efforts should be made to create jobs.

    “It is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, lawlessness and all sorts of deviant behaviour,” he said.

    He  added that tertiary institutions dump over 300,000 graduates into the job market every year thereby exacerbating the situation.

  • TUC urges gratuity in new pension law

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has called on government at all levels to take advantage of the 2013 Pension Reform Bill to prevail on members of the National Assembly to restore gratuity in the new pension law.

    Chairman of Rivers State Council of TUC, Chika Onuegbu, made this call while presenting a paper on “The Contributory Pension Scheme and Pension Reform Act 2004: Implementation, Emerging Challenges and Prospects in the Public Service” organised by the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) Rivers State chapter.

    He lamented that the controversy trailing the payment of gratuity under the contributory pension scheme now being operated in the country arose because the payment of gratuity was not clearly stated in the Pension Reform Act 2004.

    Onuegbu said: “Government at all levels should take advantage of the 2013 Pension Reform Bill to clearly and unambiguously restore gratuity. The payment of gratuity should be compulsory and unambiguous. In fact the state governments should not wait for the 2013 Pension Reform Bill, they should immediately amend their various state pension laws to clearly and unambiguously restore gratuity.

    “However, gratuities are still being paid to contributors under the new pension dispensation in the country but under a different arrangement.

    “A retiree can withdraw a lump sum from the balance standing to the credit of his retirement savings account provided that the amount remaining after the lump sum withdrawal shall be sufficient to procure an annuity or fund programmed withdrawals that will produce an amount not less than 50 per cent of his monthly remuneration as at date of his retirement.”

  • How to boost local competitiveness, by labour

    ORGANISED labour has called on the Federal Government to develop an industrial policy that supports local production through deliberate strategies of promoting competitiveness through aggressive infrastructural support and a mix of well-thought out macroeconomic framework that reward value addition and employment generation.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) gave the advice in a communiqué issued after a roundtable organised to mark the Africa Industrialisation Day. It has as Theme: Job creation and entrepreneurship development –A means to accelerate industrialisation in Africa .

    According to the communiqué: “The biggest problem facing rapid industrialisation in the country over the past decade has been inadequate infrastructure in general and lack of power supply in particular. The current power generation of 4000 megawatts translates to a mere 30 watts per capital when average for developed economies is 2000 watts per capital and therefore grossly inadequate for home and industrial needs.

    “In fact, over 60 per cent of the population are completely excluded from electricity supply. In spite of the challenge of global competition, the manufacturing industry as a whole generates around 72 per cent of its own energy needs at a greater cost. “But operating with generators greatly increases the cost of manufacturing goods making it difficult for Nigerian goods to compete with cheaper imports. “

    “The problems dovetail into the informal economy with its peculiar needs for electricity across rural and urban divide. There is a huge gap between the electricity needs estimated to be about 25,000 megawatts currently and the current electricity generation of 4,000 megawatts. That this gap will be further widened with increasing demand for electricity that is estimated to double in 2025. The Federal Government should develop and follow an industrial policy that is supportive of local production through deliberate strategies of promoting competitive production through aggressive infrastructural support and a mix of well thought out macroeconomic framework that reward value addition and employment generation.”

    The communique stressed the need to address the unrelenting spectre of violence of extremist religious and criminal gangs especially in the Northern parts of the country was also highlighted.

    The communique added: “Important also that government at all levels take the lead in patronage of made in Nigeria products, firm up regulatory controls on smuggling and dumping of sub standard goods, revisit failed privatisations especially in the iron and steel sub-sectors, stop indiscriminate granting of import waivers, ensure that the Free Trade Zones (FTZ)really promote industrial development and fair labour practices as well as demonstrate strong leadership through proactive enforcement of laws and policies that support local production and industrialisation.”

  • Omar blames Fed Govt for Iyayi’s death

    Omar blames Fed Govt for Iyayi’s death

    President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar has criticised the Federal Government for its inability to fix the Lokoja-Abuja road, where the University of Benin don, Prof Festus Iyayi died in an auto crash.

    Omar, who said he was in the state on a condolence visit to the governor and the family, described the late academic as a committed activist who added value to the labour movement.

    “We believe that certain factors led to the demise of Professor Iyayi. The Federal Government is highly culpable on the issue of the criminal neglect of the Abuja-Lokoja road, which contract was awarded over 10 years ago. While other roads have been completed, the Lokoja-Abuja road is uncompleted.

    “We believe if not for the criminal neglect, this accident would not have happened. Also, the executive recklessness on the part of the Kogi Government is glaring. This is said to be the third time that the same convoy is getting involved in accidents,” he said.

    He challenged Nigerians to ensure that things were done the right way to avoid a repeat of such incident.

    Omar said Iyayi was not only a loss to the family and the state, but also to the labour movement and the nation. He expressed the hope that his legacies would not be allowed to die.

    The NLC chief recalled that the late don did his sabbatical at the NLC, describing him as a committed person who added value to the labour movement, noting the invaluable role Iyayi played in the last negotiations with the Federal Government.

    Responding, Governor Adams Oshiomhole said there were several lessons to be learnt from the death of Iyayi.

    Oshiomhole said: “The fact that he retired as ASUU president many years ago and yet he had always identified with ASSU and be part of their struggle decades after he ceased to be their president is a testimony to the level of his conviction.

    “The way we generally drive on our roads is not good enough. Convoys are generally bad, but not once, not twice I dismissed drivers in my convoy. It is a challenge, people think the best way to show power is to oppress. I think all of us must work to get our drivers and security details to respect the right of the citizens.

    “I hope the Federal Road Safety Corps, beyond the symbolism of changing licences every year, should really get back to work and justify the huge resources that government spends on the agency” .

  • ASSBIFI to Fed Govt: reduce poverty level by 25%

    ASSBIFI to Fed Govt: reduce poverty level by 25%

    THE Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has called on the government to reduce poverty level by 25 per cent.

    The workers made the call at their eighth Triennial Delegates Conference in Ilorin.

    President of the union, Comrade Sunday Salako, said the appeal was his reaction to a recent World Bank report, stating that 100 million Nigerians live in destitution.

    The report, he added, stated that 63 per cent of the population live on less than $1.25 a day.

    He said: “This is quite unacceptable in a country that is ranked among the highest producers of crude oil in the world and with vast arable land resources.

    ‘’ASSBIFI, therefore, mandates all tiers of the government to reduce the poverty level by at least 25 per cent by the year 2016.’’

    President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, sought cordial relation between employers and employees to improve productivity.

    He said both parties must co-operate with each other for their mutual benefit and the good of the larger society. He added that any protracted friction between employer and employee “invariably results in a lose-lose situation for both sides because it is the business of the enterprise that suffers the most”.

    Kaigama believes that disagreements do not have to degenerate into conflicts if the parties, especially the employers, are proactive in dealing with work-place issues and continual oiling of relationship.

    Meanwhile, ASSBIFI has given a marching order to some management of banks and insurance firms to obey the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Core Conventions 87 and 89 and Section 40 of the Constitution on workers’ unionisation or face industrial crisis in the next few weeks.

    Salako urged some management of banks and insurance companies to obey the ILO convention and the constitution.

    He said: “The era when employers decide whether their members of staff should be organised is gone. The ILO Core Conventions 87 and 89 and Section 40 of the Constitution are sacrosanct. ASSBIFI sympathises with our colleagues in these unionised banks and insurance companies on the attack on their rights by their managements and declare that modern day slavery and attack on workers’ right must stop.”

    On lits threat of an industrial crisis in the sector, Salako said the following organisations; Diamond Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Standard Chartered, Fidelity and Guaranty Trust banks, as well as Leadway Assurance, Standard Alliance Insurance, Capital Express Insurance, Industrial and General Insurance (IGI), Goldlink Assurance and Continental Reinsurance must allow their senior staff members to unionise, adding that that is the only solution to avert unrest.

  • Oil workers slam NCDMB over exclusion from confab

    The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has expressed its disappointment to the National Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for excluding NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) from its just-concluded stakeholders’ conference.

    In a statement signed by its President, Igwe Achese, NUPENG said though it championed the battle to make the Local Content Bill a reality, it is being excluded from discussions that affect the sector.

    The union said the board’s deliberate act to exclude the two unions is to prevent them from opening up on the weaknesses and lapses noticeable in the implementation of the mandate of the board.

    Achese said: “It is sad to note that the ideals and purpose of setting up the board have not been realised.

    “It is shameful that the level of success expected of the board has not been met.The board has failed to call indigenous firms who are benefitting from the Local Content Act to stop enslaving their workers who are Nigerians as casuals.”

    According to him, the board has failed to monitor the indigenous firms that are owing their workers’salaries and allowances, adding that it has also failed to fish out indigenous firms operating in the sector fronting for foreign firms, making the Act itself a nullity.

    “These foreign firms invest in fabrication and other local content tools used in the oil and gas industry, using Nigerians as fronts.  This negates the principle behind the Local Content Act and these firms have many expatriate workers doing jobs that qualified Nigerians can do.

    “NUPENG, therefore, believes that the non-inclusion of NUPENGASSAN in the stakeholders’ summit is an attempt to gag their submissions on happenings in the affairs of the board as it is not yet equal to the task and compromising on issues based on regulation in the industry.

    ‘’NUPENG calls for another summit to include the union and PENGASSAN for the truth to be told in order to move the work of the board forward,” Achese said.

  • N960b workers’ housing scheme for launch in January

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has signed a N960 billion ($6 billion) partnership with the private property developer, Kriston Lally EPC Nigeria Limited, to provide houses for its workers, at two per cent interest, payable between 10 and 15 years.

    President Goodluck Jonathan is billed to kick off the construction in January, next year.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and its partners have assured that the houses would be in December, next year.

    The arrangement to kick-start the construction was arrived at when the leadership and some members of NLC, led by its President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, visited their foreign partners and sponsor in Athens, Greece.

    Omar and the Managing Director of Kriston Lally Nigeria, Alhaji Mustapha Madawaki, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said the team, which went to Greece was able to finalise the agreement about how the funds and logistics would be moved to Nigeria for the project.

    Omar said the trip was one of the most successful, because the purpose was for workers and how they could get houses of their own at affordable rates.

    He said one of their promises to their members, when they came in as leaders,  was to do as much as possible to ensure that as many workers as possible got shelter before they retired, because housing was one of the serious problems facing workers.

    Omar said: “The partnership is about providing quality and affordable housing for the workers. We have found in this Kriston Lally a very formidable partnership that we can rely on, we can trust and we can work with.”

    He assured those who had paid their 10 per cent that their money would be tampered with, adding that it not be part of construction, but a deposit to show commitment from the subscribers.

    Describing the scheme as wonderful, he said the Nigeria Embassy was also involved in the deal.

    Madawaki said: “By and large, we have totally agreed that the NLC play its role and the funders are very much aware of the need to start releasing funds probably in December. That will enable us mobilise and move to the site.”

    He pointed out that about 5,000 workers had already subscribed for the Phase 1 of the scheme in Abuja before a decision was taken to stop people who were rushing to be part of the project daily.

    He explained that more people were stopped from coming in in order not to get subscription beyond the target slated for the first phase.

    But he said by the time they put together Lagos, Port Harcourt and other states,  the subscription would start immediately after their trip, adding that the total number of subscribers would  be 100, 000, while the second phase would start in Abuja in the second quarter of next year.

    He said houses include one-bedroom apartments, two bedroom detached and semi-detached, three-bedroom detached and semi-detached in apartments and then four-bedroom bungalows, four bedroom duplexes, detached and semi-deached.

  • Oil workers plan to resist sale of refineries

    Oil workers plan to resist sale of refineries

    Oil workers under the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), have said they would resist the Federal Government’s plan to sell the nation’s refineries.

    The two trade unions said their opposition to the sale is against national interest and that the country would not benefit from the exercise.

    PENGASSAN President, Comrade Babatunde Ogun, claims the deal could benefit some government’s officials’ cronies.

    He said the reasons for the problems at the refineries were that the government underfunded the refineries and refused to carry out Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM), and supply crude to them.

    He explained that instead of opting for sale, the Federal Government should adopt a modified process tailored towards the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), with the National Oil Company (NOC), as owners of the four refineries holding a substantial minority shares, while core investors/local participation hold the working majority with the staff, trade unions, and the host communities holding minority shares.

    He advised that the government to deal with the problem of pipelines vandalism that hamper the supply of crude oil to the refineries as well as carry out TAM and see if the refineries would not work.

    Ogun said: “The proposed sale of the refineries is against the overall national interest, but in the interest of a few, who are lurking around the corridors of power to milk the country dry. How can a country be selling all its national assets in the name of privatisation? For whose benefit are such sales?

    “If you recall, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua reversed the privatisation of the refineries by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with a promise to carry out Turn-Around Maintenance (TAM), on them to ensure that they were sold not as scrap. On assumption to office, President Goodluck Jonathan also promised to carry out TAM on the refineries.

    “Even the controversial Kalu Idika Kalu-led National Refineries Special Task Force also had TAM or rehabilitation of the refineries to make them work in a safe and reliable manner as part of its recommendations. As we are talking now, nothing has been significantly done.

    “Why is the government proposing the sale of these national edifices without doing the needful to ensure that the refineries work at their optimal capacity? Nigerians and the public deserve to know more on the desperate reasons for the spate and row of proposed privatisation, even when the selfish motives of these proposed national assets sales can spell doom for the country.”

    He also said the refineries should be entities independent of either the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) or the proposed NOC as in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), while the board of management of each refining company should be fully responsible for its success and failure.

    Ogun said those planning to sell the refineries and their cronies planning to buy them should emulate Alhaji Aliko Dangote and establish their own refineries instead of waiting to corner the nation’s common investment.

    He also said instead of privatising the refineries, the government should grant effective incentives to allow for the development of private refineries alongside the existing ones, adding that a framework should be articulated that will make available, required crude for effective functioning of local refineries.

    “There is need to incentivize and,or compel IOCs to refine an agreed percentage of crude oil in the country. A suggestion is to tie upstream licensing to downstream investment and private ownerships of jetties should be encouraged.”

    “As the privatisation trend continues, the Nigerian public will need to know from the process drivers, the number of jobs and investment that have been created as against the reality that some cronies are now being recruited as technical partners to front for the high and mighty as was the case with Eleme Petrochemicals Company Limited, which the government sold to Indorama for $225 million, a mega plant that is the second largest in Africa, which at the time of its sale was worth about $2.5 billion as fair market value.”

    He continued: “Also at the time of the sale, the company was fully stocked and the materials needed for its TAM were being bought by the government. It only required working capital that was persistently blocked by bureaucratic bottleneck and undue government interference that delayed its efficiency.”

    “Petroleum Minister Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke  said two weeks ago that the nation’s four refineries would be put up for sale by the first quarter of next year.

    “We would like to see major infrastructural entities, such as refineries moving out of government’s hands into the private sector. Government does not want to be in the business of running major infrastructure entities and we haven’t done a very good job at it over all these years.”

    “We are right now undergoing a major turnaround maintenance programme” of the refineries, Mrs Alison-Madueke said.